Chinweizu: History of Pan-Africanism Week 3: Why Did Pan-Afrikanism Fail?

Description

Since 1937, when Garvey issued his report card on what the UNIA achieved from 1917 to 1937, no stock taking has been done in Pan-Africanism. No stocktaking has been reported done at any of the Pan-African Congresses relating the current situation to the aims and projects of the founder conference of 1900, discussing how much had been achieved, how much was still outstanding, and whether or not they were still on course etc. Consequently, Pan-Africanists are unaware of their great failure, having accomplished only 21% of the projects on the agenda set by the 1900 Conference.
(Study material: “Afrocentric or Neshnicentric”; “Pan-Africanism Revisited–Prologue”; “African High Command; “Lack of Scientific Ethos”; “Nomenclature issues 2“; Tony Martin, Proto Pan-Africanism, 1440s-1900; Amy Jacques Garvey’s 1963 Report; Du Bois, THE PAN-AFRICAN MOVEMENT; Chinweizu, Garveyism and PACM—Comparative impacts; Garvey’s Report Card, 1917-1937)

Course Description & Syllabus

This course is for those Black people who want the Black African people to survive, in security and prosperity, with self-respect and the respect of the world, just like the White or Yellow peoples of this earth. That is to say, black people who want to help create a world in which Black lives matter and in which Black people are respected everywhere on earth; and who therefore are determined to help see to it that the Black race terminates the legacy of the Trans-Atlantic Slavery System, TASS.

This History of Pan-Africanism Course is the first in a multi-sequence course based mostly on the forthcoming 8-volume book Pan-Africanism Revisited: A Neshni-centric and critical History by Chinweizu. The course, like the book, is an Inquiry into why Pan-Africanism failed in the 20th c. and into how to make it succeed in the 21st c. It is an investigative history as well as an applied history course. It isn’t just going to tell the story of Pan-Africanism. It will do so in a way that reveals insights and lessons to be applied in solving present problems so as to result in liberation for the Black race.
There is a crying need to study the lessons of the Pan-Africanism struggle since 1900, develop its good points and discard its mistakes. This is, therefore, a stock taking course to find out where Pan-Africanism has arrived at the beginning of the 21st century; and what remains to be done for it to accomplish its historical mission.
The thesis of the course, and of the book it is based on, is that we have had Pan-Africanism since the 1440s when the TASS began. And that in the 20th century Pan-Africanism failed and has landed us in the dead end of the AU and the 8th PAC. The question is: Why? Also, what could have been done to prevent failure? And what is to be done to achieve success from now going forward? These are the issues the course is designed to cast light on. Because if we don’t understand why it failed, we can’t see how to get it to succeed.

This introductory course, History of Pan-Africanism 101, will cast light on the following specific issues:
1. When and how Pan-Africanism began;
2. The tasks that the Pan-Africanism Movement set for itself in 1900;
3. The paramount but still unaddressed task of the Pan-Africanism Movement;
4. Why we need to Afrocentrically rectify the terminology we use in Pan-Africanism;
5. Why Pan-Africanism failed in the 20th century by accomplishing only 21% of the tasks it assigned itself in 1900;
6. How junk ideas, lack of scientific ethos, lack of stock taking, and lack of warrior ethos, contributed to Pan-Africanism’s failure in the 20th century;
7. The many brands, at least 9, of Pan-Africanism and how to distinguish the genuine from the counterfeit among them;
8. Why a new Pan-Africanism is absolutely necessary now and what its characteristics should be: its beneficiary constituency, legitimate participants, projects, and ideology.